Karaoke Forums

I've just returned from a short show at one of the Seniors' Residences in the area. We volunteer our services for these folks at least once a month, often for special occasions such as Christmas, Valentine's, St. Patricks, Octoberfest, and so on.

It is so gratifying to see their smiles of appreciation. If you've never volunteered to play at a Seniors' Residence, I recommend it highly. It's great for the soul.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

I've done some charitable events and nursing homes. I used to do the local CAPE for the high school prom until I had problems with a very rude administrator and sent a letter to the school board prompting an apology but didn't seem heartfelt.


I get more out of the nursing homes than anything. Just to see senior citizens tapping their feet and clapping and thanking me means the world to me.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I used to do it when I lived in Southeast Kansas and you guys are right - it was good for the soul to do it. I probably should start doing that again somewhere in my new locale

My Mom used to be an activities director at an assited living facility. She organized a social hour on Fridays for the residents. Once a month I would come in with the system and we would have a blast! Definately some of my favorite memories of hosting!!

I have done free gigs before, but the problem in my area of New York is I get asked to do something free at least once a week. If I do something free for one group, I tick off another if I turn them down. So I have a standard 50% discount off my normal rate for charity work. Interestingly, when I tell them this they usually don't even flinch and say "Great"! Turns out most organizations have entertainment budgets for such things.

Don't do senior facilities ( though I have), but if the Lions Club ( priority on the sight impaired, or the local children's hospital calls, I'm there. This would happen for any organization that prioritizes hearing impairment as well, if I could find one.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I do volunteer my services, mainly during the off season (I have a lot of weddings from May - October).

Yanno, I've done more volunteer work for funerals than anything. There's money in that - a lot of people are disgruntled with the cost of funerals, so they just do a cremation and have a service at a VFW or similar type of venue. They need music, a microphone and someone to play slide shows/videos. I thought about doing some advertising and networking, but my future is not in the delivery of karaoke/DJ/Sound System services.

And since these events transpire during the day, its a good way to get a return on your investment during a time period where your systems would just be idle anyways.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Troy, that's a dam good business idea. Creepy as hell, and I would probably feel uncomfortable doing it- if I could do it at all, but sound business logic.

Good business mind.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Joe, if you want to know about creepy...

One of these funerals I did - there was no pastor. It was a celebration of life and I was just supposed to play his favorite music and run a slide show on the big TV.

Well, eventually the family wanted to say a few words, so we planned on who was going to do the talking and when - and then I turned the music down, asked for everybody's attention and introduced the first speaker.

Doing all the announcing of the speakers, then the miscellaneous announcements "There's plenty of food. Be sure to get you a plate!" - I felt like I was a pastor - and that was creepy to me - because I wasn't a pastor and something in my pentecostal childhood kept telling me I was going to hell.

It was just all kind of awkward to me, but I nailed it and the family, still to this day, heaps praise on me every time they see me.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Ditto for me on helping out my local Lions Club.

We donate about a 14 hour day once a year for our local "Idol" competition (running sound), which the Lions Club puts on. Plus another 10 hours or so getting everything ready for the competition.

We used to "donate" our services more, but it got a bit out of control with everyone wanting a freebie for just about anything.

So now it is only for the Lions Club

We and other hosts play for a charity called Karaoke Cures for Cancer Research. The show is later in the year but Laurie The Guy said if $500.00 was raised at our shows, he would go under the clippers. More than $1,300 was raised and here is the result.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Continuing. We're thinking of framing the mullet and putting it up for auction at the event later this year. I had the honour of cutting the mullet and choreographing how the cut would be made (after observing some of the evil things boot camp barbers do to recruits right at lunch time).

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You can be strange but not a stranger